Benjamin Zephaniah

"I have been called a dub poet, an oral poet, a performance poet, a pop poet, a pub poet, a rap poet, a Rasta poet, a reggae poet and even a black poet, the list goes on. In all honesty, none of those titles offend me, I am probably all of these persons but if I had to chose one I would start with oral poet. I say this because as I write my poetry, I can hear the sound of it, sometimes I can be heard giving birth to my poems by those close to me and sometimes those that are close to me get tired of hearing me give birth too often.

The oral tradition is timeless, it is simply the tradition of passing on information orally and much of this information is handed down in the form of poems, songs and stories. People in the western world tend to see the oral tradition as something from the past and not relevant in the age of the Internet, but elsewhere the tradition carries on regardless. The oral tradition thrives when there are restrictions on peoples abilities to speak or when they have no access to the media."

Dr Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham. He cannot remember a time when he was not creating poetry but this had nothing to do with school where poetry meant very little to him, in fact he had finished full time education at the age of 13. His poetry is strongly influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica in what he calls 'street politics'. His first real public performance was in church when he was 10 years old, by the time he was 15 he had developed a strong following in his home town of Handsworth where he had gained a reputation as a young poet who was capable of speaking on local and international issues.

He loved Handsworth, in the Seventies it was the Jamaican capital of Europe but although his work had become popular within the African-Caribbean and Asian community he thought the town was too small, he was not satisfied preaching about the sufferings of Black people to Black people, so he sought a wider mainstream audience. At the age of 22 he headed south to London where his first book Pen Rhythm was published by Page One Books.

Page One Books was a small, East London based publsihing co-operative which published Zephaniah when others failed to tune into the new poetry that was about to emerge. The book sold well going into 3 editions but it was in performance that the Dub (Reggae) Poet would cause a revolution, a revolution that injected new life into the British poetry scene and attracted the interest of many mainstream publishers, some of whom had sent refusal letters to him only 12 months earlier.

In the early Eighties when Punks and Rastas were on the streets protesting about SUS Laws, high unemployment, homelessness and the National Front, Zephaniah's poetry could be heard on the demonstrations, at youth gatherings, outside police stations and on the dance floor, because of his ability to perform, it was once said of him that he was Britain's most filmed and identifiable poet. The mission was to take poetry everywhere, he hated the dead image that academia and the establishment had given poetry and proclaimed that he was out to popularise poetry by reaching people who did not read books, and those that were keen on books could now witness a book coming to life on the stage. This poetry was musical, radical, relevent and on TV.

In the nineties his book publications, record releases and television appearances have increased in Britain, although he has concentrated on performing outside Europe. He feels at home anywhere the oral tradition is still strong and he lists South Africa, Zimbabwe, India and Pakistan & Colombis as some of his most memorable tours. Life has been one long tour but this is the only way the oral tradition can live, over a 22-day period in 1991 he performed on every continent on this planet.

Periodically The Benjamin Zephaniah Band takes to the road, the nature of the music business means records get to places around the globe a little quicker than the poet, so many people around the world are more familiar with the poets music than his performances, plays or books. His only official fan club developed in Malawi in Central Africa and his only Number One Hit Record was in the former Yugoslavia where the Rasta LP was released on the Helidon lable. He was the first person to record with the Wailers after the death of Bob Marley in a musical tribute to Nelson Mandela, it was recorded at Marley's Tuff Gang Studio in Kingston, Jamaica. Mandela heard the tribute whilst in prison on Robben Island and soon after his release he requested an introductory meeting with Zephaniah, they have not built a relationship which has led to Zephaniah working with children in South African townships and hosting the President's Two Nation's Concert at the Royal Albert Hall in July 1996. Other musical collaborations include Bomb the Bass album Clear produced by Tim Simenon, where the track called Empire sees the poet working with Sinead O'Connor.

His first book of poetry for children called Talking Turkeys had to go into an emergency reprint after just 6 weeks, no one could foresee how popular the book would be, it went to the top of the children's book list and stayed there for months. At first he was not keen on publishing a book for children believing that there was just poetry, not children's poetry or adult's poetry, but he was soon convinced that young people did appreciate the fact that he is not afraid to write about the real world where there are bullies, guns, racism and war. Being a passionate vegan he writes a lot about animals but these animals are not all smiley, happy creatures, some may just be waiting for slaughter or losing their habitat and of course some may be having fun.

Young writers have said that the accessibility of his work has inspired them to take up writing, many record sleeves bare witness to the fact that he has inspired many of the new generation of rappers, and of all the performance poets that emerged in the late seventies/early eighties he is one of the few that is still going strong. In 1998 the University of North London awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his work. Zephaniah believes that working with human rights groups, animal rights groups and other political organisations means that he will never lack subject matter. Working in Asia, South America and Africa has given his poetry an international outlook which in turn has made him understand the role as a poet and the nature of the cultural glue that binds us all together.

He has been Writer in Residence at the Africa Arts Collective in Liverpool and Creative Artist in Residence at Cambridge University. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of North London (1998), the University of Central England (1999), and the University of Staffordshire (2002). In 1998, he was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education to advise on the place of music and art in the National Curriculum. His most recent book is We Are Britain! (2002), a collection of poems celebrating cultural diversity in Britain.

From http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/